Engaging and empowering employees to make better health and health care decisions, evaluating health exchanges and dealing with the lack of health care price transparency are three of the biggest challenges for Texas employers, finds a recent survey by the Texas Business Group on Health, an employer-sponsored health care coalition.
The survey of 73 large and midsize Texas employers revealed the following five concerns regarding health benefits:
- More than half mentioned the challenge of creating outcomes-based wellness incentives, meaning they would like to reward measurable health improvements rather than participation in wellness activities.
- About 42% said they wanted to improve employee engagement in their health and well-being.
- The same percentage identified lack of health care price transparency.
- 40% said evaluating the impact and opportunities afforded by private exchanges in the insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act.
- About 38% named focused employee education on personal health and becoming well-informed health care consumers.
Twenty-one percent, meanwhile, cited the implications of narrow provider networks as a primary concern.
Given the size and growth of the Texas economy, the challenges facing our employers most likely reflect the concerns of all U.S. businesses, said Marianne Fazen, chief executive officer of the Texas Business Group on Health and the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health.
